Endangered Species

The lamentation that conservative Republicans are pushing moderate ones out of the party is a legitimate concern that has gotten play in the main stream media. On the other hand relatively little is said about efforts of the extreme left to marginalize democrat's viewed as 'to right-wing'. Case in point is Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman who is often considered "a Republicans favorite Democrat". Joe Lieberman is perhaps the most vocal and well known supporter of the current Iraq War in the Democratic Party. As a result of his support for the conflict Lieberman was fiercely attacked by the MoveOn.org crowed during his 2004 bid for the Democratic nomination, Lieberman faired quite poorly in the primaries despite being only four years removed from the number two spot on his partys ticket. Now as he gears up for re-election to the Senate Lieberman finds a concerted effort by members of his partys left flank to challenge him in the primaries (so far no strong rival has emerged). But with party leaders like Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi all "taking shoots" (The Nation, Jan 9th 2006) in recent weeks, and MoveOn eager to find a candidate to back financially, things are looking bleak for the senior senator from the nutmeg state. If all this weren't bad enough Lowell Weicker a former governor of Connecticut who has earned The Nations praises for being "a maverick and liberal Republican" has pleadged to challenge Joe in the general election as an independent, should the sitting senator not be defeated by his own party in the primaries (I suppose the plus side of this is that Lieberman would then most likely be replaced by a Republican).

The anti-war faction within the Democratic party sensing an opening with recent setbacks to the currently dominate Republican majority is attempting to seize control of its party (and by extension the congress) in a manner every bit as aggressive and mean spirited as what the conservative Republicans are being charged with being. Now I admit that I don't know if this would be a good or bad thing in the long run. As a strong supporter of a vital two party system (which I admit we haven't had much of recently), I would like to see the Dem's get their gumption back. However I'm not sure whether I want the left party to go "whole-hog" and become an anti-war party, or if I feel that the potently freighting consequences of an early withdrawal from Iraq are to dangerous to risk making a political possibility. 2006 could be the most important mid-term election sense the Republican Revolution (copyright Newt Limited) of 1994, and I guess in about 11 months we should know for certain.